Strategies for Fighting Racism on Social Media

I recently posted on Facebook about the ongoing trial of former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin for killing George Floyd in police custody by kneeling on his neck. There were not a lot of comments on the post, but one in particular definitely caught my attention. I'm not going to post the individual's name here; suffice to say that he is an acquaintance from when I lived on the island of Saipan. Actually, "acquaintance" is probably stretching it: we met once when we were paired up to search a certain area of the jungle for a friend who had gone missing. So we spent a few hours searching together one time a couple years ago. I did not even realize that we were FB friends until I saw this comment today. I will post it in its entirety, and then break it down with my responses. 

Here is his comment:

When I initially read his comment, my first instinct was "delete and block." Because I am learning how to be a better antiracist activist, however, I decided not to go with my first instinct. Instead, after clearly stating my disagreement with his position, I took the time to address each of his racist opinions and misinformation with evidence-based facts and statistics. Here is my initial response:

I’ve watched a good bit of the TRIAL which includes ALL the video footage and absolutely does NOT support your statements. You are not only completely wrong about white people, but you’re ignoring America’s history of oppression and even enslavement of Black people. To think that character is based on the color of one’s skin is so foolish, so ignorant, so contradicted by ACTUAL SCIENCE. You should do yourself a favor and watch the medical testimony, particularly the pulmonary and critical care expert. All the experts completely debunked the allegation that his death was even drug-RELATED. I’ll post the link to the testimony in a minute.
I worked in criminal [j]ustice for many years so I have seen firsthand that White people can be every bit as depraved and evil as any other race. I truly hope that you will re-examine your feelings/beliefs in light of the facts rather than other people’s racist opinions. I’ll post a couple related links there too.
I do find your statements repulsive and personally offensive, but I’ll keep this thread open for now in the hopes that you will open your heart.

I subsequently added the following:

I’d like to add two more points: (1) You live on the island of Saipan which has an extremely tiny percentage of Black residents. Are you basing any of your knowledge on personal experience with Black people? Do you have any Black people in your life?
(2) I have not had a television in over 15 years, so I don’t watch any networks unless I specifically look something up on Google and there’s no paywall. I get most of my news from award-winning newspapers and journalists. For issues related to race, I read evidence-based scientific, sociological, and historical sources. I don’t not believe something because it is some reporter’s opinion. I go to the source. Learned that in law school.

Then, after taking the time to look up the sources I needed and verify the accuracy of what I was writing, I fully responded to his initial comment, line by line. I'm posting my responses here in the hopes of starting a discussion about how (and whether) we should respond to this kind of open racism. 

This is not an easy thing to do. It took nearly two hours of reading, thinking and attempting to write effective responses to his assertions. I am not sure that this is the best approach to take. It is more like an experiment testing how this method of arguing on social media fares against other methods. I am interested to know what other methods people have tried and whether anyone has had any success in terms of the receptiveness of the other party (or other "friends" who followed the discussion).

Here is how I responded to his comment. Note that his statements are bolded bullet points, followed by my responses in italics:

• These things don't happen to white people because so very few white people behave in that fashion.

If “that fashion” means resisting arrest, it is an extremely common charge regardless of race. I looked at arrest data from a number of states and it indicates that police more commonly charge Black people with resisting arrest (rates I saw varied around 52-55%; the charging rate for white people is around 45-48%). Although I wouldn’t say 45-48% is “so very few”, charges do not necessarily reflect what actually happened. Moreover, due to the historical oppression of Black people by law enforcement, it would be reasonable to assume that more Black people would resist arrest.

• So very few [white people] have put pistols to the belly of pregnant women.

First, I don’t know what “so very few” means to you, but White people are convicted of armed robbery all the time. I’ve prosecuted many of them. According to the FBI Uniform [Crime] Data Report, in 2020, 224,720 White people committed a violent crime. Is that what you mean by “so very few”? The difference between white and black people is under 4,000. (I did not look up armed robbery specifically, but you can find all the crime data you want here: FBI Crime Data Explorer).

Second, the pregnancy allegation is false. This is an easy one. Harris County Criminal Court records [are public and] online so you can look them up yourself just like I did. Yes, Mr. Floyd was convicted of participating in an armed robbery 14 years ago, but there is ZERO indication that the victim was pregnant. It is also unclear whether Floyd was the perp with the gun - the victim only remembered him rummaging through her cabinets.

This was his final criminal conviction and he served his time for it. He did not deserve to be executed because of it.

• So few [white people] have knowingly passed counterfeit money.

This is a ridiculous assertion. No one knows whether he knew it was counterfeit. The store clerk testified that he did NOT think Mr. Floyd knew it was counterfeit.

• So very few [white people] resist arrest after numerous opportunities not to do so.

See above re: resisting arrest.

• Almost none have spent 4 years in jail for home invasion and armed robbery.

See above re: violent crime statistics.

• And fewer [white people] still have ingested enough fentanyl to kill two men.

[Y]our statistics about fentanyl are wrong. The opioid crisis has disproportionately affected White people. Here is a US Government report from SAMSA, a division of the department of health and human services, on the rising opioid crisis in communities of color. The first chart you will come to clearly shows that the overdose rate is substantially higher for White people in every single category - including fentanyl.

Please keep in mind that this was published in 2020, so pre-Biden.

• All these things, and I'm sure many more, influenced Floyd's behavior on the night in question.

I’m going to ignore this because you’re unqualified to make this assessment.

• Chauvin was a good cop doing his job.

What evidence do you have to support this? I don’t know if he was a good or bad cop, but I know that 17 complaints had been filed against him in his 19 years with the MPD. The nature of the complaints were confidential and only one resulted in disciplinary action, so this doesn’t necessarily mean that he was a bad cop, but it definitely calls into question whether he was a good cop.

• Not the tripe foisted by the likes of the Cartoon News Network and the rest of their MSM ilk.

I think I’ve been clear as to the sources of my information.